SPARTANS WIN CROSS COUNTRY

Fairlands Valley Spartans won the men’s and women’s race in the final cross country league fixture of the 2015-2016 season.

CRAIG HALSEY opened up a gap to win the men’s race by 51 seconds in 34 minutes 25 seconds and NATALIE LAWRENCE won the women’s event in a fantastic 38 minutes 42 seconds no less than 3 minutes 32 seconds ahead of her nearest rival.

It was hilly, chilly and sunny as the Spartans set a new all time club record for participation in a cross country event. 324 from 20 clubs finished and 53 were FVS. Many had joined the Stevenage based club in the last year.

Despite the tough course five of the men’s team managed to run the 5.5 miles in less than 40 minutes. After Craig ANDREW PATTERSON was third in 35 minutes 29 seconds; GRANT RAMSAY 14th in 37:29; KEITH COUGHLIN 23rd in 38:33; and PAUL HEWETT 33rd in 39:35. The eight man “A” team was completed by MIKE GREEN, 45th in 41:09; STEVE GREEN, 51st in 41:41 and PAUL WHYTE, 65th in 42:44.

The men were second on the day, just six points ahead of Trent Park, and came THIRD in the whole series with 92 league points, just one behind Trent Park and five behind winners Royston.

The Spartan women’s “A” team WON their race on Sunday. All five of them finished in the top twenty five with CLAIRE WHITCHURCH moving into the top flight for the first time. They were, of course, led in by race winner NATALIE LAWRENCE in 38:42; MICHELLE REEVES sped in at eighth in 44:56; TRACY PEZ was 15th in 46:40; CLAIRE PULLEN 21st in 48:19 and Claire Whitchurch 22nd in 48:22. Fifteen other Spartan women finished so the club were unique with complete A, B, C and D teams at the end.

The FVS women were fourth over the whole series which started in October. It was desperately close for the third, or BRONZE, position with the Spartans just one league point, 82 to 83, behind Garden City but actually ahead of them, 813 to 751 on individual race points. The combined male and female teams were second on the day – Royston scored 1772; FVS 1962 and Trent Park 2020.

Spartan Men on Therfield Heath (Eight for each team); FVS Second Out Of Twenty.

Position

Name

Age Group

Time

Comments

1

Craig HALSEY

SM

34:25

“A” team

3

Andrew PATTERSON

SM

35:29

“A” team

14

Grant RAMSAY

V40

37:29

“A” team

23

Keith COUGHLIN

SM

38:33

“A” team

33

Paul HEWETT

SM

39:35

“A” team

45

Mike GREEN

V40

41:09

“A” team

51

Steve GREEN

V40

41:41

“A” team

65

Paul WHYTE

SM

42:44

“A” team

69

Liam HERBERT

SM

43:08

70

John HARRIS

V50

43:11

77

Karl CLARKE

SM

43:51

82

Tim SABAN

V40

44:07

83

Todd GRAY

SM

44:15

91

Daniel BATES

SM

45:16

92

Thomas SAUKA

V40

45:22

117

Ryan DUNNING

V40

48:12

127

Mark GOODWIN

V50

49:07

142

Steve SMITHSON

V40

50:44

153

Dean CARPENTER

V40

52:44

157

Danny SUTTON

SM

54:09

160

Jon SYPULA

V40

54:23

165

Robert WRIGHT

SM

55.25

166

Vish SHAH

SM

55:26

167

Andy JAY

V50

55.26

169

Tim ROBINSON

V40

55:45

175

Andy PRIOR

V40

56:41

182

Ken JUDE

V50

57:47

184

Jim BROWN

V60

58:29

187

Lee PICKERSGILL

SM

61:08

190

Simon SYPULA

V40

62:50

198

Steve GOUGH

V40

67:42

200

Mark FREEMAN

V50

76:29

201

Paul HOLGATE

V50

76.16

Spartan Women on Therfield Heath (Five for each team): FVS Win, First Out Of Twenty.

Position

Name

Age Group

Time

Comments

1

Natalie LAWRENCE

SW

38:42

“A” team

8

Michelle REEVES

SW

44.57

“A” team

15

Tracy PEZ

V35

46:40

“A” team

21

Claire PULLEN

V45

48:19

“A” team

22

Claire WHITCHURCH

V35

48:22

“A” team

28

Suzy HAWKINS

V35

49.20

48

Claire COX

V35

52.07

57

Hazel CLARK

V35

53.13

63

Isobel GREEN

V35

54.02

73

Verity FISHER

SW

55.27

87

Steph MAYFIELD

V35

58.26

91

Sue HAMER

V45

59.30

95

Ada JANUSIENE

SW

60.32

99

Jeanette COLLINS

V45

61:32

103

Olwen BATTY

SW

63:37

104

Nicola TOUT

V35

63:57

105

Jenny GARRETT

V45

63:57

107

Sharon CROWLEY

V55

64:02

115

Julie SHADBOLT

V45

67.41

122

Peta WILSON

V45

76:27

Suspicious in Gravesend

ROGER BIGGS ran in the strangely named ‘Unusual Suspects’ marathon from the Cyclo Park in Gravesend. It was seven out and back laps on mixed terrain, uphill for the first half of each lap, and down for the second. He finished in 5 hours 35 minutes 15 seconds.

Punchbowl Paul

On Sunday CAROL PAUL ran the Punchbowl marathon in Surrey which is a 30 mile off road event taking in the Devil’s Punchbowl. There were lots of hills and it was very muddy underfoot. Carol completed the event in 8 hours

Who Will It Be?

Will it be Iris, Julie, Maddie, Sam, Suzy, Tracy or Yllka? Will it be Barry, Bernie, Craig, Grant, Jason, Jim or Steffan? Who will be the club champions for 2015? Come along to Fairlands Valley Spartans Presentation Evening, Dinner and Disco which will be at Chesfield Downs Gold Club from 7.30p.m. on Friday 26th February. Tickets are just £20. Go to www.fvspartans.org.uk to book yours. You must book by 19th February.

Parkrun Reports

Spartans were relatively few in number at parkruns last weekend as most took it easy ahead of the final cross country league race.

At Panshanger Park ISABEL GREEN had a gentle outing finishing 164th of 197 in 35:52, accompanied by children GEORGINA (165th, 35:52, new course PB) and DANIEL (170th, 37:25, new course PB).

RICHARD KENNEDY and NICOLA HABERLAND ran their regular parkrun at Holkham, Richard finishing 10th of 133 in a new course PB of 20:24. Nicola also achieved a new course PB of 23:01 in finishing 29th.

SIMON JACKSON finished second of 154 runners at Bognor Regis parkrun in a time of 17:59 on his first visit to the venue, while closer to home at the Wimpole Estate ANDREW MARTIN finished 232nd of 250 runners in 37:23 accompanying young Mabel Martin in her first parkrun (same time).

At Brockenhurst DARYL STEVENS was 90th of 91 finishers in 40:02, while DANNY SUTTON and VERITY FISHER ran at Cannon Hill parkrun in Birmingham, Danny finishing 125th of 626 in 22:44 and Verity finishing 255th in 25:45.

Finally, the most northerly Spartans at parkruns were MICK CONNELL (295th of 496 in a time of 27:25) and ROGER HARDMAN (29th, 27:27) who both ran at Newcastle.

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including the:

Live in or near Stevenage? Like running? Fairlands Valley Spartans is your local running club and is on the up! The club was voted the UK’s Best Running Club in 2010. It now has hundreds of members and encourages participation by all. The Spartans have a varied training programme to suit those who want to run 5 kilometres through to full marathons.

The Spartans weekday training sessions are on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Go along to the new sports centre at Marriotts School – a Sports College, Telford Avenue, Stevenage (SG2 8UT) at 7p.m. Up to five running groups go out on training nights – there will be one to suit you!

The Spartan Starter group starts from Marriotts at 7.30p.m. every Monday (except public holidays) and 7p.m. every Thursday.

Most long Sunday morning training sessions start 9a.m. sharp. Spartan track training sessions are held at Ridlins Athletics Track, Woodcock Road, Stevenage most Saturdays from 9.15a.m. There are events to enter every Sunday. Newcomers are very welcome – those who have not yet done very much running might prefer to start with a Thursday, Saturday or Monday session.

Try a few sessions before joining. Membership is only £37 per year, £25 without UKA affiliation. Concessions are available. Membership forms are available on the Spartans website www.fvspartans.org.uk Please ask if you would like a paper copy. You can also join online.

If you want to know more about the Spartans please contact Jim Brown (0793 968 7509), Andy Neatham 0777 197 5499 and 01438 816889; or Karen Palmer (07734678566) or visit their website www.fvspartans.org.uk

Our starter group is the place for beginners, improvers, and anybody who wants to complete a gentle 5k run as part of their exercise program, whatever your ability or level of fitness. Everybody is welcome,